The band, consisting of guitarist and vocalist Kris Leonard, guitarist River Reeves, Bassist Tomas Lowe, drummer Jack Dakin, and manager Craig Tarry, had travelled abroad to perform at the Where’s The Music? festival but it is believed to have been the car in which they were travelling that was involved in the collision.

The vehicle is reported to have gone through a barrier of a bridge that had been opened to allow a cargo ship to go underneath near Stockholm and a Foreign Office spokesperson confirmed that ‘five British nationals died in a car accident in Sweden on February 13.’

The crash scene at Sodertalje Kanal in Sweden (Picture: REX)

The band, originally from Warrington, had been excited about their future plans, posting on Facebook: ‘Very excited to announce we’ve been invited by to play BBC Introducing and PRS for Music Foundation’s showcase at SXSW Music Festival in Austin Texas at Latitude 30 on Wednesday 16th March!!’

The band had reportedly been due to play their next gigs in their hometown of Warrington and had played at Reading and Leeds in 2015.

Music Photograher Melanie Smith expected big things for the indie pop group and told The Mirror: ‘They were on the cusp of making big waves in the music industry. I had the pleasure of photographing one of the guys, Tomas, many moons ago on my first ever band shoot. He was the nicest guy you could ever meet.’

In an interview with The Liverpool Echo, which named them as their band of the week in November last year, Viola Beach named their influences as The Coral, The Zutons and The Beatles.

They also said: ‘Being from Warrington it’s always either Manchester or Liverpool for things like gigs and big nights out as we’re directly in the middle of the two. Which we’re definitely lucky to have I’d say.’